Chapter 1: Introduction

The origin of the Eagle Knights is open to much debate; some place it early in history, when the Mexica were still a nomadic tribe and Tenochtitlan was but a dream in the horizon. It is said that the priest Aacatl separated a group of Mexica and gave them weapons and made them warriors; this might be true, but it doesn's mean that they were Eagle Knights.

Origin

At the beginnings of the 15th century, when Europe was barely rising from the muck of the Middle Ages (according to the Technocracy, of course), in the land of Anahuac the Triple Alliance was being formed between the city states of Texcoco, Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan or Tacuba. This Alliance would serve as a joint army to overthrow the tirany of the Tecpanec rule of Azcapotzalco; Prince Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco sealed the pact with emperor Izcoatl of Tenochtitlan. The Alliance would serve many interests; Nezahualcoyotl, a Galliard of the Ehecatl Tribe would free his people and allow more werewolves to reach his domains unmolested; Izcoatl, a human, would gain great political advantages, but Izcoatl was not the mastermind behind the Alliance; it was rather Tlacaelel, an Archpriest who later became the ghoul of Huitzilopochtli, an insane vampire that had erected himself as god of the Aztecs and demanded blood to "keep the Sun going".

Tlacaelel did great things for the Empire, and between those things was the revival of the old toltecan Orders of Knighthood. The fact that the Eagle Knight should rise from the ranks of the Jaguar Knights was a move by the priests of Tezcatlipoca, for the main body of the Jaguar Knights were Nahual, a dark tribe of werejaguars, and their kinfolk.

The Cuacuahtzin were elite warriors. For the people, the Cuacuahtzin were heroes, almost demigods for when they died in battle they became Cuauhtecatl, spirits that joined the Sun in his eternal fight against darkness.

Yet for the High Priests, they were cattle.

Huitzilopochtli once in a while decided to Embrace; the choice was a priest most of the times, but Huitzilopochtli would hear about the deeds of one of his chosen, and would make him a vampire through one of the priests at the sacrificial stone, at a private ceremony in the Knights' chapterhouse, which was located right next to the Templo Mayor. The Knight, sure that he was dead, truly believed that he had become a Cuauhtecatl upon embrace, and obeyed the priests blindly. The inability to stand the light of day was explained as the warrior being condemned to night so as to fight it.

In fact, the Knights were partially Awakened; they could not command the awesome Disciplines of Clan Huitzilopochtli, nor had the Gifts of the Jaguar Knights, but had the uncanny abilitly to sense the unnatural and improve their bodies and minds.

The Conquest

Tlacaelel, close to his death and dismayed by the fact that Huitzilopochtli had no intentions of Embracing him, performed a ritual that enabled him to contact the European Kindred, inviting them to come to the New World.

And they did came, and their efforts brought along with them the might of the Celestial Chorus and the rising Technocracy, both intent on destroying the magickal paradigm of Anahuac.

The Eagle Knights fought valiantly the army of Hernan Cortes, but the Spaniards were equiped with superior magicks, courtesy of the Technocracy and, in 1521, the Aztecs surrendered their city. The Knights protested this decision, but Cuauhtemoc, the last emperor, urged them to lay down their arms. Cuauhtemoc, whose name was "Eagle that falls", knew very well who was behind many of the politics at his palace, the ghoul Tlacaelel, a man that should have died half a century ago. While a prisoner of the Spaniards, Cuauhtemoc discovered the full truth about Huitzilopochtli and managed to warn one of the Knights before the European Kindred, counseled by Tlacaelel, killed him.

The Knights were dismayed; they were about to launch a counterstrike when they learned the news: a creature of darkness had been ruling them, and their founder had summoned more monsters from the east and was even now a part of them.

Their hesitation allowed Tlacaelel to attack them and almost wipe them out, but many did survive and fled to the countryside, where they had to hide their nature, for many were the people that hated them because of Aztec expansionism.

Leaderless and disorganized, the Knights thought they had seen the end of all they had held dear.

The Discovery of the Four Ways

In the middle of desperation, a young Knight, whose name is lost in history, sought out the help of the Dreamspeakers and Verbena, and was greeted with a message from the Gods: they must not give up the fight, for they were now the land's only protectors.

With the Dreamspeakers' aid, this Knight traveled to the Realms of the Gods: North, where Tezcatlipoca lived; East, where Quetzalcoatl had his home; South, where the true Huitzilopochtli awaited his Knights, and West, where Xipe Totec built his dwelling.

And so goes the litany of the Four Ways, chanted whenever a new Cuacuahtzin joins the ranks:

Ollin: Eternal Movement

The Toltec legend marks the beginning of the Fifth Sun when the Gods gathered in Teotihuacan; the world was in darkness and they decided to make the Sun; for this, they prepared a huge bonfire and asked for a volunteer to jump into it; Tecciztecatl, a richly dressed god, offered himself but, when he had to jump, he stopped in fear. Tecciztecatl tried two more times, but fear gripped him and he didn't jump.

It was then that Nanahuatzin, a poor and warted god, offered himself in Tecciztecatl's place; he prepared himself and sank fearlessly into the fire. Tecciztecatl, ashamed, jumped afterwards.

In the horizon, two suns appeared and the gods, angered at Tecciztecatl's cowardice and dishonor, threw a rabbit at the second sun and turned it into the moon.

The sky now had light, but something was wrong: the Sun was not moving. It was then that the assembled gods made an offering of blood, which started the Fifth Sun's movement in the sky; forever chasing the moon and keeping the night at bay.

This was then Ollin Tonatiuh, the Movement Sun, a neverending cycle that the Eagle Knights embraced and found within themselves; the energy of change, of a circle of life that will end in a series of great earthquakes; the Sun of Movement ending in a Great Movement.

When Tlacaelel burned the records of Azcapotzalco, he equaled his Sire, the vampire Huitzilopochtli, with the Sun of Movement, a Sun that demanded blood in order to keep moving, usurping both the names and functions of two Celestines: Huitzilopochtli the Warrior and Tonatiuh, the Nahui Ollin.

But the gods reached the disheartened Cuacuahtzin and told them the truth and pointed them to a new path.

The embracing of Ollin changed the Knight's view of the world; they now saw the world as a neverending cycle, a constant, ordered change and evolution. This view has put them in good terms with many Garou as well as with the Verbena, Dreamspeakers and the ocassional Euthanatos (Death is also part of the Ollin).

In this way, they deny stagnation and are almost always at the vanguard of human evolution; they fight the forces of the mad Weaver and the Technocracy, whose wish is to stagnate reality; they also counter the traditionalist views of certain Garou Tribes and of Traditions like the Order of Hermes who can't see past their laws and customs into the necessary change.

The foreigners

Decades of war against the invaders led the Knights to reconsider their position on the whole foreign issue; they were the first to aknowledge the intercultural richness and mixed ancestry of Mexico, and began accepting mexicans of whiter skin into the Order, since for the first hundred years of the new Cuacuahtzin they only accepted indians.

Women in the Knighthood

The philosophy behind the Ollin allowed the admission of women in the Order centuries before the first feminist consciousness and movemements; their beliefs said that a host of women warriors accompained the Sun in the second half of its journey through the sky, so it was only natural to accept women into the new Order, putting the Knights at ease with the Black Furies; women can achieve the same rank and the same power as any Knight and it's frowned upon that any male Cuacuahtzin discriminates any of his female fellows.

Sacred Mission

From the day the Four Ways were accepted, the Knights devoted themselves to the protection of humans, specially against the supernatural. They hold a special jyhad against vampires. All vampires. The Cuacuahtzin abhor Kindred politics, although they keep tabs on them. Many times they have completely undone Camarilla and Sabbat plots; in their role as hunters, the vampires have tried to manipulate them to attack political opponents, only to find their own havens burned and Childer staked.

But the protection goes beyond killing the predators; the Cuacuahtzin patrol the country as the european errant knights, looking for ways to help the people, assisting when natural catastrophes strike, such as the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City or the Paricutin eruption, many of them hold jobs that strive to help their communities.

Code of Honor

Despite the change of the Ollin, the Knights cling to a strict Code of Honor, similar in many ways to that of Garou.

• When going to war or to knowledge, you must be wide awake, be fearful, be respectful and have absolute confidence, any other way of going to war and to knowledge is a mistake.(1)
• Be at the same time pondering and rash; ponder your next action, and then abandon yourself on your decision.
• Talk to Death. Death awaits us and to aknowledge it helps you to see your own insignificance.
• Never burden others with your presence.
• Obey your superiors and respect your subordinates.
• Protect humans against the supernatural; even if the creature is your friend.
• Vampires are a blight to the world; they must be destroyed.
• If your life is worth another life, give it freely.
• Never alter your consciousness by artificial means; it's disrespect for the gods and dangerous in battle.

Glossary

Coatlicue.- "Skirt of Snakes", the Mother Godess; Gaia.

Xiuhcoatl.- "Fire Snake", the weapon of Huitzilopochtli, the rays of the Sun. The vampiric Discipline of Xiuhcoatl is considered a blasphemy.

Cuauhtecatl.- "Eagle Companion"; when the Cuacuahtzin die, they go to the the Realm of Helios; sometimes they go to the Aetherial Realm to join the court of Hyperion.

Cuauhtlehuamitl.- "Darts of the Eagle"; a magic-charged missile.

Ollin.- Movement; the backing philosophy of the Cuacuahtzin.

Ollin Tonatiuh.- "Sun of Movement", the Fifth Sun of the legend, the current era.

Cuauhtecuhtli.- "Lord of Eagles", the leader of the Eagle Knights.

Mictlan.- "Realm of the Dead"; the name for a Far Shore in the Underworld, sometimes used to describe Erebus. Also an organization of mexican vampires similar to the Sabbat and the Camarilla.

Organization

A council of Masters (Rank 5) chooses a Cuauhtecuhtli; the Lord of Eagles, to be the Leader of the Order; he is advised by the Four Masters of the Ways, who are also Rank 5 and have achieved the Fifth Level in their Way of Journey. The five Masters compose the leading organ of the Order.

Journey

Way of the Leader.- Knights who choose this Journey are often the leaders of their Company, but they are also mediators and scouts; they believe in the power of organized groups and strive to unite the efforts of their fellow humans. As their patron is Quetzalcoatl, they hold knowledgeable and kind people in respect.

Way of the Sorcerer.- Regarded with suspicion, the Sorcerers see the world as a place where magic is power, and the only way to get things done is by learning the secrets of the occult and bend them to their wills. Their patron, Tezcatlipoca, makes them a little untrustworthy, though their loyalty to the Order is unquestionable.

Way of the Warrior.- Rash with pride, many Warriors see themselves as the original Eagle Knights. Conflict is what moves the world for them, and they intend to win the upper hand. They tend to be strongly individualistic and self reliant. Their patron Huitzilopochtli demands from them great deeds of battle.

Way of the Worker.- The Workers are a simple lot, or so many believe; they think that anything is possible if one just works hard enough for it. They see the world as a workshop and circumstances as tools to make one's own destiny. Xipe Totec is a complex god; he represents the growth of the spirit by the shedding of the material.

back to the Eagle Knight Index

Last Chapter	Next Chapter	Main

---

Comments for the author can be sent to Alejandro Melchor

Problems with this site send to Dennis Payne

This page was done by Alejandro Melchor, and last modified in 4/Oct/1995